Governor Blanco continues fight for Louisiana's fair share of recovery dollars

A January 2007 press release from (ex-) Guv Blanco. Read it before the Jindal folks overhaul the site. A choice quote from Mike "Brownie" Brown of FEMA:

"Unbeknownst to me, certain people in the White House were thinking, we had to federalize Louisiana because she's a white, female Democratic Governor and we have a chance to rub her nose in it ... We can't do it to Haley because Haley's a white male Republican governor. And we can't do a thing to him. So we're just going to federalize Louisiana."

Governor Blanco continues fight for Louisiana's fair share of recovery dollars

Biloxi's Recovery Is Half of The Story

About the proposed $600m diversion of housiong funds on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Biloxi's Recovery Is Half of The Story
In Casinos' Shadow, Katrina's Mark Lingers

New Orleans Aquarium Fights Red Tape

This story seems to have been picked up by dozens of newspapers, and even a few overseas. New Orleans Aquarium Fights Red Tape

Privatizing Disasters

Naomi Klein, author of "The Shock Doctrine" has an interesting article in The Nation titled "Rapture Rescue 911: Disaster Response for the Chosen". It seems having a fire put out at your house during wildfire season or being rescued from a hurricane-style disaster is turning into a big private business. For a tidy sum, you can get to the front of the line. I'm highly skeptical of such schemes. They are reminiscent of ancient Rome's 'private' fire protetion service under the famously greedy Crassus. It was a very profitable business, but not very useful in protecting the citizens of Rome from fire.

House votes to override Bush veto of $23 billion water bill

House votes to override Bush veto of $23 billion water bill
Thank goodness the other branches of government is the US are finding the spine (and their brains, also). Note that this water bill:

Among those projects are the reconstruction of levees around New Orleans and the closure of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet, a man-made channel blamed for funneling Katrina's devastating storm surge into the city's Lower 9th Ward and neighboring St. Bernard Parish.

Audit: Texas Slow Delivering Rita Aid

Well, at least it isn't just Louisiana. Seems only 2% of the Federal aid sent to Texas for hurricane victims in 2005 has been distributed. I'm told this is one of the techniques used to 'balance' the budget in Texas. The Guv can actually claim a surplus and even continue his tax cuts. Audit: Texas Slow Delivering Rita Aid